• Photos

poe.jpgEdgar_Allan_Poe.jpg
  • Dates of birth and death

    • Birth: January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts
    • Death: October 17, 1989 in Baltimore Maryland

  • Geographic region of influence

    • He wrote about boston Massachusetts and later switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, in Baltimore, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism.

  • Family information: spouse, children

    • He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him.
      • Spouse: Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe
      • Children : There is no evidnce of any children

  • Unique characteristics of works

    • Edgar used many mirror imaging and symbolism in his poetry.
    • Some Biographers think that the mirror imaging and symbolism are a reflection of his life and how it started off good and started to fall apart.
    • Edgar used a house that starts off strong and clean symbolizing his young body and as it goes on the house begins to fall and become withered it symbolizes his body and life falling apart and becoming depressing.
    • Other Biographers believe that his substance abuse is linked to his poetry while others believe that his substance abuse was because of all of the deaths in his life, the physical and emotional abuse.

Influence / Focus of works

  • Some influeces include

    • Simon Bolivar - South American General and Political Leader
    • Davy Crockett - American Explorer and Patriot
    • Andrew Jackson - 7th President of the United States
    • He loved to write poems for the loves of his life.
    • As his poems became darker and more disturbing some people think that this was because of his substance abuse.
    • One of the biggest influences to his later poems was the many deaths of his loved ones and the abuse that they had inflicted upon him.
    • Edgars work reflected the darkness instilled by such continous sorrow and sadness in the world.
    • Many of his closest influences had died at a very young age.
  • Any other information of note (Ex: Poe’s marriage or manner of death).

    • He attended boarding school in London
    • He finished school in Richmond, VA
    • He spent a year at University of Virginia untill his adopted father took him out of school due to gambling debt
    • Poe as a private in the military where he lied about his age saying he was 22 when he was actually 18, where he worked for 5 dollars a week.


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